David Robertson of St Peter’s Free Church Dundee has a good article on Evangelicalism, especially in the present Scottish context. One paragraph of a more general nature that I found particularly to resonate is the following:
‘Lack of Maturity – This astounds me. I have always assumed that Christians should be able to disagree passionately, openly and freely without personalising everything and taking everything personally. But that does take a certain degree of maturity. I have lost count of the number of people who have written, phoned, and even visited to warn me that lots of ‘evangelicals’ were hurt by my remarks. I can understand that people disagree. I can understand that people are angry, disappointed or surprised at my ignorance. But hurt? What was there to hurt? The language of hurt is increasingly being used to stifle debate and to prevent discussion. It allows the one who is hurt, or even better the person who wants to be the nice guy and speak on behalf of those who are hurt, to dismiss the arguments of the person who does the ‘hurting’, because anyone who hurts is nasty. It is the immaturity of the child crying ‘I don’t like you, you’re not nice’. It is the evangelical equivalent of Section 5 – the British law that makes it a potential crime to say anything that could possibly offend someone. Yes – sometimes we all (myself especially) use language that is at times too robust. And yes we can all be wrong (again especially yours truly). But please don’t try to kill of any discussion by playing the hurt card. It is a sign of childish immaturity and we should be beyond that.’
Amen.
Indeed, brother, we do well not to call astounding everything that people call astounding; and not to fear what they fear, and not to dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one we are to regard as holy, he is the one we are to fear, he is the one we are to dread. Therefore (like your friend David says) let us go on to maturity by binding up the testimony and sealing up the law among the Lord’s disciples. So now listen to me. it is my judgment that in matters such as this (that is matters that stem from the desires of reprobate men who try to test God by putting on the necks of Jesus’ disciples a yoke that no one has ever been able to bear–not even themselves!) that we should not make it difficult for the men and woman who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For since the earliest time, men have made idols of men (such as some do Moses) whose words are esteemed as if they were a kind of man’s intellect on parade, which are then preached in every city and are read in many a ‘holy’ settings on days deemed likewise ‘holy’ to man. Thank you.
Agreed. The sentiment is symptomatic of a feeling-based culture who can’t think their way out of wet paper bags. If you can’t think through something reasonably, then all you have to fall back on is emoting. When reasons are lacking, attitudes stiffen.